Centrifugal thrashing machine



April 21, 1925.

4 Sheets-Sheet 1 H L STRONG ET AL CENTRIFUGAL' T HRA SHING MACHINE Flled March 11 1924 w wneoo April 21,- 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 2' H L STRONG ET AL CENTRIFUGAL THRASHING MACHINE v I Flled March 11, 1924 April 21, 1925.

H. L. STRONG ET AL GENTRIFUGAL THRASHING MACHINE *4 Sheefs-Sheet 5 Filed March 11 1924 To all whom it may concern:

Patented Apr. 21, 1925.

IQUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HOMER L. STRONG AND THOMAS E. IORSTER, 0F WICHITA KANSAS."

CENTRIFUG-AL THRASHING MACHINE.

Application filed March 11, 1924. Serial No. 698,535.

Be it known that we, HOMER L. STRONG and THOMAS E. Fons'rnn, citizens of the United States, residing at Wichita in the county of Sedgwick and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Centrifugal Thrashing Ma'- chines; and we do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,'such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to the art of thrash ing and is an improyed thrashing machine in whiclrcentrifugal force is utilized in a scientific 'way to perform the thrashing operation.

The improved machine has been carefully designed so that the cost of its production may be such that every individual farmer may own one the same who owns his individual harvester,

can thresh his grain whenever ready, with out being obliged to wait his turn for a;

community or professional thresher. The machine has comparatively few working parts and is constructed in such a manner that very little power is necessary to operate it or to move itfrom one place to'another, and furthermore, it may be very successfully operated'with a minimum amount of labor. Moreover, the parts 'of the machine are arrangedcompactly so that the machineis comparatively small. The advantage for this is that it may be conveniently housed or stored away in a comparatively small space.

The macl'ne is remarkably efficient, as the mechanism is designed so as to .thoroughly thresh the, grain without cracking it, and so as to scour or polish it and separate all dirt, dust or chalf from it. By the construction employed, this is accomplished without waste of grain, that is to say, without permitting any of the threshed grain to be thrown onto the stack with the straw'and chaff. Although, the novelty contained in the improved machine is particularly set forth and defined by the appended claims, yet it will be pointed outthat the machine includes a cleaning mechanism which is constructed and arranged so as to not only separate chaff and dust from the threshed to separate unthreshed or only artially threshed grain from the fully thres ied gram and to convey such untractor, and the like, and

illustrated in Fig.

threshed' or partially threshed grain back to a portionv of the machine in which it will be scoured and fully threshed. In addition to this, the improved machine has an uniquely constructed rotatable means for threshing the grain by. centrifugal action, and also a uniquely constructed spiral conveyor operating in a conveyor conduit for moving the threshed grain along the conduit and at the same time causing the grain to be thoroughly scoured and polished. Then too, power is applied to the machine in a unique way, so that unthreshed grain will only be fed into the threshing chamber while the centrifugal threshing. means disposed therein is maintained at a proper thrashing speed.

- In more fully describing the invention hereinafter, reference will be made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part ng mechanism, said view being drawn on an enlarged scale; Figures 4, 5, 6 and 7 are transverse sectional views of portions of the machine,

Figs. 4:, 5 and 7 being taken respectively on the planes indicated by the lines 4- 4, 55

and 7-7 of Fig. 2, and Fig. '6 being taken on the plane indicated by the line 6-45 of Fig. 1

Flgure 8 1s a plan view of one of the grain deflecting bars which is mounted at the bottom of the thrashing chamber;

Figure 9 is a side elevation of the bar 8; and

Figure 10 1s a transverse sectional view of the bar taken substantially on the plane indicated by the line 10-40 of Fig. 8.

As illustrated'in the'drawings, the machine'is preferably mounted upon a framework, portions of which are indicated by the numerals 1. This framework includes a pair of axles 2 carrying supporting wheels 3 to permit the machine to be easily moved from place to place. At one end, the framework is provided with a draft tongue 4.

Upon the framework of the machine,

there is suitably mounted a horizontally disposed thrashing chamber 5. This is preferably substantially cylindrical throughout the greater portion of its length, but its rear 14 is a shaft 23. This shaft is provided end is preferably of conical shape as indicated at 6 and is provided'with'a straw and chaff outlet 7. The front end ofvthe chant her hasannnthreshed grain inlet 8.. This is disposed .at the upper ortion of this end of thechamber in .somew 1st of an offset relation from the longitudinal axis .of the chamber. A platform 9 with hoppered sides.

extends forwardly from the front end of the'thrashing chamber 5, and mounted so as to operate longitudinally over this platform is an endless slat conveyor 10 by which the unthreshed grain is conveyed and fed 'into the thrashing chamber through the inlet 8. Extending transversely between -the hoppered sides of the platform 9 and arranged above the conveyor 10 is, a shaft 11 carrying." a plurality of band cutter knives 12. i

The bottom of the thrashing chamber 5 is provided with a threshed grain outlet. This is preferably in the form of a comparatively wide longitudinally extending opening 13. Thisthreshed grain outlet leads into the upper side of the front end portion of a conveyor conduit 14, which is arranged below the thrashing chamber 5 and extends a considerable distance beyond the rear end of the same. The bottom of this conduit 14: is perforated as indicated at 15,v and the perforations thereof are opened. or closed at. will by the longitudinal adjustment of a perforated plate 16 which is slidably mounted upon the bottom of the conduit.

The smaller rear end of the cone-shaped section 6 of the thrashing chamber 5 is secured to a fan housing 17, and extending through the central portion of this housing and axially through the thrashing chamber 5 is a' rotatably mounted shaft '18. shaft 18 carries in the thrashing chamber 5 a plurality of arms 19 which are arranged spirally along the shaft and extend radially therefrom. The shaft 18 also carries a suction fan 20 disposed within the fan housing 17.

The arms 19 with which the shaft 18 is provided, are arranged in pairs, so that the arms of eachpair extend radially in opposite directions from the shaft. The inner ends of each pairof arms 19 extend or pass around opposite sides of the shaft 18 and overlap as indicated at 21 in'Fig. 5, and securing elements 22 pass through these overlapping ends and secure .the arms of each pair together and clamp them to the shaft 18. The outer ends of the arms 19 are inclined toward the rear end of the thrashing chamber 5 and laterally in a- This which the shaft 18 revolves. The purpose with a series of diametrically extending apertures which are arranged spirally 1 along the length of the same. In these apertures, the studs 24 which extend from the ends of the blades 25 arefitted. Nuts 26are threaded" upon the free ends of the studs 24: to securely clamp the blades in place upon the shaft 23. The blades 25 being arranged in a spiral series along the shaft 23, are pitched at such an angle that they will move any grain falling-into the conduit 14 longitudinally along the same toward the 'rear end thereof.

In the opening 13 formed in the bottom of the thrashing chamber 5, there is mounted a plurality of grain deflector bars 27. These bars 27 which are preferably formed of angle iron, extend'longitudinally of the thrashing chamber and are pivoted at their opposite ends'adjacent their angle portions in any suitable manner, so that they may be adjusted to different angles. The bars 27, as clearly shown in Fi 5, are transversely overlapped in the direction of rotation of the' shaft 18 and arms 19, and are preferably provided along one of their overlapping edges with a series of grooved notches 28, forming passages for the threshed grain from the chamber 5 into the conduit 14:. By adjusting the angles of the bars 27 provision is made to permit proper depending upon the character of the grain being threshed. It of course is preferable to adjust all of the grain deflector bars 27 simultaneously, so that a shifting spacer bar 29 is connected to all of said bars and this bar is provided with an operating handle 30. r 4

The front end of the conveyor conduit 14: is provided with an air opening or passage 31, and the amount of air passing through this passage is controlled by proper adjustment of a pair of slides or shutters 32. These are particularly shown in Fig. 5. In this view, the right hand slide is illustrated as being closed, while the left hand slide is illustrated as being partly open.

At the rear end of the machine, back of the fan housing 17, a shaker shoe 33 is mounted for longitudinal reciprocation. By preference, links 34 are employed to mount the shaker shoe to certain of the bars forming part of the framework of the machine. The rearmost' links 34: extend downwardly below their pivots withsaid bars to form arms 35, to the ends of which pitman rods 36 are connected. These pitman rods 36 are operated by eccentrics 37 mounted upon the opposite ends of a suitable mounted transversely extending cross shaft 38.

The conduit 14 communicates atits rear end with the lower portion of a substan-- tially square or rectangular shaped conduit 39. Sprocket wheels '40 are mounted at the corners of this conduit, and a sprocket chain 41 passes around the sprocket wheels 40 the conduit. This chain 41 provided with a series of steel elevator flights 42, so that the grain which is fed into the bottom portion of the conduit 39 and through from the conduit 14 is carried and raised by the elevator flights 42 to a position above the inlet 43 of the shaker shoe 33 and dumped into theshaker shoe. v I

The grain delivered into the, shaker shoe 33 first drops onto an inclined spreader board 44, from there it passes onto an adjust-able chaft'er 45 and the grain that passes through the chafi'er 45 drops ,onto anadjustable sieve 46, and then whatever grain that passes through the sieve 46 falls onto the hoppered bottom 47' of the shaker shoe and into a chute 48.

'Mou'nted in any suitable manner at the l'cilI' end of'the machine beneath the shaker fan 50 isproperlydistributed or given the proper course by deflector board or shoe 33 is a housing 49,'in which a blower fan 50 is mounted. This fan 50 discharges into the bottom of the shaker shoe 33 at the rear end thereof, and the air which is forced into and through the shaker shoe 33 by the a manually adjustable air damper 51, andalso by I a curved baflle 52' mounted beneath the spreader or fall board 44.

A conduit 53 has its upper end'portion arranged so as to receive any chaff, dust, light matter or the like from the forward'end of the shaker shoe 33. This conduit leads the fan housing 17 The fan 20 in the housing 17, not only creates a-current ofair through the thrashing chamber 5, but also acurrent of air through the shaker shoe 33, and an adjustable slide 54 is, provided in the conduit 53 which falls over the sieve.

as ameans to obtain the proper air current in the shaker shoe 33.

Another conduit 55 leads from the forward'end of the shaker shoe 33 to an intermediate portion of'the conduit 14. The (301k duit 55 has its upper end positioned so as to receive any unthreshed 'or partly threshed grain too large to pass throughthe sieve 46 forward end of the The spout 48 leads into the lower portion of the conduit 56 for an endless elevator 57 provided with a plurality of steel scoops or buckets 58 which scoop up the grain and raise and then dump it into an automatic weigher 59. From the Weigher 59, the grain 65 is discharged into a loading spout 60 by farmtractor, traction engine, or

of the machine.

' thefan housing 17 from the thrashing chamber 5 and the shaker shoe 33 through the conduit 53 is discharged by the fan 20 into a .stacker'. spout 61 communicating'with the top of the fan housing 17 and arranged in an elevated position upon one side of-th'c machine.

Power is supplied to the-machine from a the like, by means of abelt 62. This belt 62 is preferably passed; under. a pulley 63- arranged loosely on a suitably mounted shaft 64 extending transversely across the front The: belt then passes around a pulley 65 fixed upon the forward end of the shaft 18 on which the'thrashing arms 19 are mounted. After passing around the pulley 65, the belt 62 passes under a pulley 6Q fixed upon the shaft 64- It will therefore be seen that power from the tractor or the like will be imparted directly to the shaft on which the thrashing arms 19'are mounted.

On the shaft 18 adjacent the pulley 65,

there is another pulley 67 A belt 68 passes e band cutters 12 are mounted, and I ice a shaft 74 passing transversely across the hoppered sides of the platform 74 carries a sprocket wheel 7 5 connected by a sprocket chain 76 ton sprocket wheel 77 upon the shaft 78 which drives the slat conveyor 10. By the means just described, it will be seen that power given to the shaft 6.4 will be continuously imparted to the shaft 11 on which-the band cutters 9 and 12 are mounted, and that power will also be given to drive .the' conveyor 10, and to the pulley 73. This'pulley 73, as hereinbefore mentioned; constitutes part of a centrifugal.

clutch, that is, it will only drive the shaft 74 whendriven at or above a certain speed by the belt 71. Thus, in the thrashing chamber becomes clogged, or there is a reduction of "the speed of the thrashing means below the proper thrashing speed, the centrifugal clutch will operate to allow movement of the feed conveyor 10 to cease.

In order to drive the eccentrics 37 which effect a reciprocation. of the shaker shoe 33, the shaft 38, upon which said eccentrics are 9. The Shaft in case the material the conduit 14.

mounted is provided with a pulley 79 around which passes a belt 80, which also passes around a pulley 81 fixed upon the other end of the-shaft 64. Power from the shaft 38'is transmitted to the drivin shaft 8:2- of the elevator 57 by means of a belt 83 passingaround a pulley 84 arranged on the shaft 38 and a pulley 85 fixed upon the shaft 82. Power from the shaft 38 is alsov transmitted to the shaft 86 of the blower fan 50 by a belt 87 passing around a pulley 88 on the shaft 38 and a pulley 89 on the shaft 86.

In addition to the above described belt, there is a belt 90 which passes around a pul-' ley 91 arranged on the conveyor shaft 225 and a pulley 92 upon the shaft upon which one of the sprocket wheels 40 of the cleaner elevator is mounted. By this means, power is supplied to the cleaner elevator from the shaft of the spiral conveyor arranged in The machine may be easily operated by one or more persons, and in operating it, the unthreshed grain is placed or thrown upon the conveyor 10. This conveys it"into the thrashing chamber 5 and as it passes under theband cutters 12, thejbands aroundthe sheaves will bei-cut and the stalks will "be evenly distributed across the conveyor. I

While the machine is in operation, the suction fan 20 will suck a light current of air through the opening 31 in the front end;

of theconduit 14. This air will pass upwardly from the conduit 14 through the opening 13in the bottom of the thrashing chamber 5. into the thrashing chamber and rearwardly through thesame; At the same time, the fan 20'will' assist the fan 50 in causing a current of air to pas's through the shaker shoe 33. Y

When the unthreshed. grain enters the thrashing chamber 5.' it wilL-ibe' :whirled around inthe thrashing chambergpassing from swarm to the next succeedingarm,-

untilthe end of the thrashing chamber is reached. The. rapid whirling. of the grain causes a separation of, the grain from the] straw, and since: the inside-Joli thrashing chamber 5 is entirely smooth nobeating whatsoever takes place,tlie'-grain that?" threshed will not be cracked damage The stalks of grain are whirled rather; ra idly around the thrashing chamber-b'.- fthe arms 19, so that by the timethey reac the rear end of the thrashing chamber, there will be a complete separation of the particles of grain from the straw. The construction of the outer ends of the arms '19 is such that each arm whirls the stalks of grain a few revolutions and thenallows it to slip off-to be whirled by the next succeeding arm.

The straw and chaff which is separated, from the particles of grain by centrifugal action in the thrashing chamber 5 passes through the straw and shaff outlet at the rear duit until it falls into the conduit 39. The

conveyor in the conduit let is operated, that is to say, it is timed to operate at a speed to cause the grain to pass through the conduit rather rapidly. The grain in passing through the conduit 14 is agitated or given such a motion that the particles will be rubbed together and rubbed against the blades 25 and. the walls of the conduit 14: so as to effect a scouring or polishing of the gram. A

I After passing into the conduit 39, the grain will be elevated and discharged into the shaker shoe. 33. Upon entering the shaker shoe 33, it will first fall ontothe board 44 and be spread out. From there, it

.,,will pass onto the adjustable chafi'er 45, and

this will ,in conjunction with the current of air passing through the shaker shoe, sepa-' rate any chaff, dirt or lightgmatter that'there may be with the grain. This matter will pass into theconduit 53 and from there into the fan housing 17 and be discharged by the fan 20 into the stacker spout 61.

The grain. that passes through the chafi'er 45 falls upon the adjustable sieve 46. This is considerably finer than the chafi'er 45, so that it operates to separate the thoroughly threshed grain from unthreshed grain or only partly threshed grain. The thoroughly threshed grain. passes-through the sieve 4G aridfalls upon ,the-hoppered bottom 47 of the shaker shoe, but the partly threshed or unthreshed grain travels towards the front end of the sieve 46- and drops into the spout Oriconduit 55 which leads into an intermediate part of the conduit 14, so that this grain is again scoured and cleaned, and the operation of course will be repeated until all of the grain xwill be thoroughly threshed, scoured and cleaned. j gFrom the, chute"- 48, the threshed grain passes into the conduit 56, and the elevator 57 in such conduit raises it and dumps it into the automatic weigher 59, from which it is dumped or discharged into the loading spout 60 to be other suitable receptacle. 7

From the foregoing description, it is believed that the construction, principle of operation, uses and. advantages of the invention will be readily understood, so that further explanation will be unnecessary. Howdirected into a wagon, sack or" ever, it will be again pointed out thatthe improved machine has compartively few parts and is of comparatively simple construction, that it may be produced at a small cost, so that it is possible every individual farmer, may own one and can thresh his grain whenever ready without being obliged to wait his turn for a community thresher. Furthermore, very little power will be required to successfully operate the machine, and thrashing can be done with a minimum amount of labor.

It is obvious that many changes iniconstructionmay be made to the machine without departing from the principles of the invention or sacrificing any of the advantages thereof, so that the appended claims which define the novelty contained in the invention are worded in' order to contemplate and cover various modifications.

What is claimed is: 1

1. In a thrashing machine, the 'combination of a thrashing. chamber having an 1111,

. threshed grain inlet at its front and a straw and chaff outlet in its rear end, said chamber also having a threshed grain outlet, ro-

tary thrashing meansmounted in said cham her, a grain cleaning device positioned in rear of said chamben'means to convey the threshed grain from the threshed grain outlet of said chamber to said device, the front of said device having a chaff outlet, a fan housing positioned between said chamber and said device and havin inlets communicating with the straw and chaff outlet of said chamber and the chaff outlet of said device, and a suction fan mounted in-said' housing.

2. A machine constructed as defined by claim 1, and further provided with a blower fan discharging into the rear end of the cleaning device to assist in separating the chaff from the grain'and to direct the chafi toward the chaff outletof said device.

A machine constructed 'as defined in claim 1, and further provided with a blower fan discharging into the rear end of the cleaning device to assist in separating the chaff from the grain and to direct the chaff toward the chaff outlet of said device, an air deflector mounted within said device to direct the current of air from said blower fan therethrough, and means for adjusting said deflector.

4-. In a thrashing machine, the combination of a thrashing chamber havin an unthreshed grain inlet at its front and a straw and chaff outlet at its rear end, said chamber also having a threshed grain outlet, rotary thrashing means mounted in said cham her, a grain cleaning device positioned in rear of said chamber, means to convey the threshed grain from the threshed grain outlet of said chamber to said device, said device having separate scoured grain, unscoured grain and chaff outlets, the chafi IZZY tom, means disposed ,within said chamber for thrashing the grain by centrifugal action and at the same time conveying the (straw and chaff toward and into said straw and-chaff outlet, a horizontal conveyor con duit located beneath said chamber to receive threshedgrain therefrom, the front end of said conduitbeing provided with an air in- A letto permit air to enter and pass upwardly through the threshed grain outlet of said chamber into the latter and through the same, and a conveyor mounted in said conduit to .move the grain through the same. 6. A machine containing the combination of parts set forth in claim 5, and inaddition thereof, shutter means at the air inlet of the conveyor conduit to control the amount of air admitted.

7. In a centrifugal thrashing machine, the combination of a horizontal thrashing chamber having an unthreshed grain inlet at one end, a straw and chaff outlet at its other end and a threshed grain outlet extending longitudinally along its-bottom, rotatable means disposed'in said chamber to th'resh the grain .by centrifugal action and at the same time to convey the straw and ohafl toward and into said straw and chaff outlet, means heneath said chamber to receive the threshed grain. therefrom, and a. plurality of longitudinally extending grain deflector bars arranged in the threshed grain outlet of said chamber, said bars being transversely overlapped in the direction of rotation of said rotatable thrashing means, whereby to prevent. the straw and chaff from passing through said threshed grain outlet.

-8 A machine constructed as defined by claim 7, in which the grain deflector bars areprovided along one of their edges with series of notches forming passages for the threshed grain.

9. In acentrifugal thrashing machine, the combination of a llOI'lZOllllitl thrashing chamber havingan unthreshed grain inlet at its front end, a straw and chaff outlet at its rear end and a threshed grain outlet at its bottom, a rotatable shaftextending axially through said chamber, and a plurality of radially extending arms arranged in spiral formation along said shaft, the outer ends of said arms being inclined rearwardly toward the rear end of said chamber and whereby said arms thresh the grain entirely bythe action of centrifugal force and con- 5 vey the straw and chaff throughsaid chamber toward and into the straw and chafiz' outlet thereof. r

10.'A machine constructed as defined by claim 9, in which" the thrashing chamber is substantially cylindrical for the greater portion of its length and is smooth on the inside.

- 11. In a centrifugalthrashing machine, the combination of a horizontal thrashing chamber having an unthreshed grain inlet at one 5 end, a straw and chaff outlet at its other end and a threshed grain outlet at its bottom, means disposed in said chamber for thrashing the grain and for conveying the straw and chaff toward and into said straw and chaff outlet, a horizontal conveyor conduit located beneath saidchamber to receive threshed grain therefrom, a conveyor disposed in said conduit to move the grain therealong, the bottom of said conduit being 1perforated to provide an outlet for said smal seeds and the like, and adjustable means to open and close the apertures in the bottom of said conduit as desired.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto affixed our signatures.

HOM'ER L. STRONG. THOMAS E. FORSTER. 

